I watched a podcast recently where they visited SBB corals and he was dosing his entire system every few weeks with antibiotics prophylactically. So I think the question of whether we are abusing antibiotics is.... answered. of course people are.
I've heard it stated that "well cows pee out more antibiotics than we would ever use" which I feel is a weak argument, just because someone else is worse is not an excuse to be bad
I've also heard that we could use antibiotics safely if people treated the waste water with bleach or killed all bacteria in their waste water in some other fashion, and I can say with certainty that the average reefer is not going to do that.
I am not sure where we go from here, since folks seem to have latched on to antibiotics, but I fear whatever it is will be short lived as we undoubtedly will face a ban on their use much like exists in Europe today. "If you cant be trusted to use your toys safely, you lose your toys"
Should be a great discussion, I have not met Dong Zou but I enjoy the reef beef podcast very much.
Lots of great topics!
One of my favorites is the dichotomy of reefing these days:
- On one hand we invent ever stronger ways to keep the tank sterile (rollermats, stronger skimmers, more powerful UV) and on the other hand we recognize that the critters suffer if the environment gets too stripped down. Which is also strange considering how devoid of nutrients and food the water on an actual reef is (most of the time). [touches on the our tanks vs the real reef topic]
- On one hand we have aquabiomics and lots of folks desperate for more or "the right" bacteria in their tanks and animals, and on the other hand we have reefers and wholesalers dosing their systems with broad spectrum antibiotics just wiping out the natural bacterial landscape.
One thing that I am glad to see is that it seems like the "frag star millionaire" bubble has burst a bit and fewer people are getting into reefing thinking that it is just a fast way to turn a buck. When I lived in Cali and reefed there around 2018 that was definitely the case. Everyone buying a 1" frag and the next week selling two 0.5" frags. I am glad to see businesses growing that QT fish in a responsible manner and offer fantastic, responsible, and ethically raised corals and animals.
I used to love going to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, what an epic place, I think Rich used to work there. Very cool spot, their filtration rooms were amazing. Not quite as epic as the lab under Rich's house though.
